Game Preview – LA Galaxy v Sporting Kansas City

Kansas City – Sunday, May 1st the LA Galaxy play Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park at 5pm PST on Fox Sports One. This is another in a string of match ups where two clubs have been in MLS Cup finals or have decided the last four cups. The Galaxy are in great form right now having scored nine goals in the last two matches, including a 5-2 win over previously undefeated Real Salt Lake. Sporting KC comes off of a midweek 1-1 tie with the Vancouver Whitecaps.

In Kansas City, the series is through twenty eight meetings: Sporting 15 wins, LA Galaxy 8 wins, and 5 ties. Sporting Kansas City scoring 40 goals, and the Galaxy scoring 36. Overall, the series is in the Galaxy’s favor 24 wins to 2o for Sporting Kansas City with eleven ties. Galaxy have scored 84 goals, and Sporting KC has scored 66 goals. The clubs split the series last year, as in each match the scoreline was 2-1. In the last match in Kansas City, Sporting had a 2-1 win keeping their record against Los Angeles in Kansas City stellar. The Galaxy haven’t won in Kansas City since 2007. Likewise, KC hasn’t won in Carson since 2010.

The draw last week for Sporting KC snapped a four match losing streak that started on April 13th, but the tie kept their record of four straight winless, which was after a four match winning streak to start off the season. Sporting sits in sixth place in the Western Conference, with 13 points from nine matches. Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes employs a (4-1-2-3): Alec Kann – Saad Abdul-Salaam, Nuno Andre Coelho, Matt Besler, Amadou Dia – Lawrence Olum – Benny Feilhaber, Roger Espinoza – Graham Zusi, Dom Dwyer, Brad Davis.

This is the last match Nigel de Jong has to sit out on his suspension for the tackle on Portland Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe. Jelle Van Damme will face suspension if he picks up another yellow card, and Daniel Steres will face the same after two more yellow cards. The officiating crew for the match is: Chris Penso, Corey Parker, Brian Dunn, and Caleb Mendez.

Reported by Kevin Baxter of the LA Times and LA Galaxy Insider Adam Serrano, Steven Gerrard picked up an injury following training Thursday. On Thursday, Gerrard trained fully with the team but did not train on Friday.